Halley 07-08

Andy in Antarctica (again)

Thursday, 21 February 2008

Last post?

I've been a bit remiss at keeping up with this lately. I can't claim being busy as an excuse - I've had sod all to do for the last month. The ozone monitors all went in smoothly, and with them installed my work was done. Maybe that's why - when there is little to do, there is little to write about.

Somehow I pass the time though. I'm quite happy to be paid 85 spondoolies a day Antarctic bonus on top of my science wage to mess around with my own website - which is what I would mostly be doing anyway back in Blighty. Midsummer Energy is pretty busy these days compared to this time last year, so there are often enquiries to answer. My office mate Rob is doing a sterling job looking after all the deliveries back in the UK. The Teal website is much prettier than it used to be (anyone want a 90 year-old quay punt? Anyone??? Special price, just for you...); and that still leaves time for playing with gimmicks like the CO2 counter. I really was bored that afternoon.

There are a few bits of base work to help with. There is always a share of melt-tank filling to do, and I've been helping with the packing up of the Clean Air Lab that I was involved in setting up a few years ago. It will be mothballed for the next two years until the new base opens. Helped a bit on the construction site for the new base too, lacing up the enormous tents that have been put over the structures to keep the winter weather off.

And that's just work hours. In the evenings there is pool to play, the perimeter to ski round (or run on an energetic day if the snow is hard enough); band practices to do (they were desperate for a bass guitarist and I was the nearest thing they could find); snow caves to dig. I'm not sure why we need a snow cave really. I think it's just a nice thing to have. I was hacking away cheerfully at the ice with the wintering GA when we worked out he was in the year above me at school. I wasn't suprised. I don't know what it was about Watsons that sends people so far away, but that's the third time I've bumped into a schoolmate down here.

Anyhow. A month ago time seemed to be passing ever so slowly. I don't know where it has all disappeared. Suddenly I have just 1 week left here, so seeing how good I've been at keeping up with this, don't expect to hear much more from me... though I might post a couple of pictures from South Africa if you are lucky.

Overpopulation

Two things have changed since I was last at Halley. More vehicles, and more - and more - support staff. Perhaps too many of both? That's not entirely fair - there is no doubt that the enormous John Deere and Challenger tractors that have appeared make the job of hauling cargo up from the ship far easier. While a sno-cat struggles along with one sledge of cargo behind it, a Challenger trips along merrily with half a dozen (burning more than a gallon of fuel a mile as it does so, by the way).

However, in the old days everyone drove the sno-cats and helped with the cargo work - now we employ drivers, and extra mechanics. There would have been one vehicles manager, and outgoing and incoming wintering mechanics last time I was here. Now the little empire based at the garage runs well into double figures. They drive round in circles all day flattening snow to keep themselves busy.

We've got two doctors on base, whose combined official duties this year have been splinting a broken finger. We have three base GA's (that's BAS-slang for binmen) for an unfathomable reason, though there is little enough work for one. Waste handling in the winter is the doctor's job. We have three base commanders. It used to be the case that a winterer would be asked to do the winter BC duties on top of their normal job - now someone is employed specifically for the job. Vicky, the permanent BC, is kept busy enough (and she has an admin assistant to help her these days too), but there ain't a lot to keep the outgoing and incoming winter BC's busy.

The cooks have plenty to do. There are more mouths to feed after all. But where everyone used to take turns to help with gash - washing up - we now have three St Helenians to run around after us. They're nice blokes, but is it progress to have someone else do your laundry for you?

We even have a dedicated science manager these days, though there is little science left to manage.

It's all a big vicious circle. Except it's not vicious really, it's just a bit daft. We've got newer, bigger tractors to make things more efficient; so we need drivers to drive them, mechanics to mend them, managers to manage the drivers and mechanics, managers to manage the managers, chefs to fry their chips, domestic helpers to do their laundry, comms managers to give them internet access; doctors to splint their fingers; we need to build a bigger, better base to house them and employ plumbers and electricians and generator mechanics to look after all the plant. But do we do any more science? I think not.

Blizzards

I've got a rabbit on my head; I've got leather gloves, fleece, jacket, padded overalls, rigger boots, and a headover pulled up over my ears. Only the very tip of my nose sticks out below my goggles. It's just reached 40 knots. The pressure is 965mBar, but it's expected to drop a fair bit yet before this blow bottoms out. We've been lucky with the weather so far this year, but it's turned against us now.

Going outside is entertaining. The buildings are about 500m apart. Visibility is about a 10th of that. A few steps struggling into the wind and the accomodation building is lost in the driving snow behind. All about is white; even without snow plastered across your goggles it's impossible to make out any features on the ground. Stagger across the sastrugi, tripping on the windtails that form behind any obstruction. There is nothing in your world except the handline beside you.

Head down, plod on. Surely the science platform must be close? Peering ahead there is nothing. Until, suddenly, it looms, only a few steps away. Up the steps and into the warm, only the swaying of the building and a tingly nose to remind you of the blizzard outside.

All lots of fun. Though I'll be sleeping in the lounge tonight. The 'Annex'- the shipping containers that have been put up as temporary accomodation for the excess people on base this season - has drifted in. Might be possible to get in with a bit of digging, but it'll just have drifted in again in the morning. If they had been clever they would have made the doors open inwards - at least then you could dig your way out.